Restructuring teachers’ work‐lives and knowledge in England and Spain

This article explores the restructuring of education in England and Spain. Against a presumably homogeneous global streamlining of educational systems according to competition‐driven goals, the comparison of teachers’ work‐lives and professional knowledge evidences a variety of experiences under‐represented in discourses on global restructuring. Our argument highlights how in England political reforms have worked their way deep into the working lives of professionals, giving rise to a ‘managerial’ model of professionalism, whereas in Spain reforms are more loosely coupled with teachers’ work, favoring a ‘social service’‐oriented model. However, despite the different professional ideals, teachers uniformly stressed the challenges they face were predominantly due to broader social transformations for which policy reforms provided few if any remedies. Our study emphasizes the variety of educational reforms and teachers’ experiences in the European context and argues further educational change should be bound to the historical trajectory and the concrete needs of the professionals in question.     

Factors and conditions promoting academic resilience: a TIMSS-based analysis of five Asian education systems

It is well documented that academic achievement of students from families of low socioeconomic status (SES) tends to be below their more socially advantaged peers. Several studies have identified factors and conditions that facilitate academic success for disadvantaged students (i.e., promote academic resilience). However, one of the main criticisms of this body of research is in the set of variables that explain academic success for low-SES students and which is not very different from the variables that would explain academic success for all students. The objectives of this article are dual: firstly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic success, regardless of student SES, and secondly, to identify factors and conditions associated with academic resilience, that is, exclusively for low-SES students. To this end, we used data from Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, and Japan in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011. The study sample covered 23,354 students in 720 schools in the five countries. The strategy for analysis was driven by fit of logistic regression models, first predicting the probability of academic success and then subsequent identification of variables significant as predictors for success within the pool of low-SES students. Results indicated that variables, such as positive student attitude to mathematics, teacher confidence in student performance and the test language being spoken at home, were associated with greater chances of academic success. High academic expectations and time spent on mathematics at home demonstrated a differential effect between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in Singapore. In Korea, being male (gender) and in Taipei, low levels of bullying at school, increased the likelihood of resilience. Results suggested that interventions impacting behavior reflected in differentially associated variables could help disadvantaged students to become academically resilient.     

Pre-service Teachers’ False Beliefs in Superstitions and Pseudosciences in Relation to Science and Technology

Science & Education - In order to increase scientific competence within the general population, it is important that teachers and educators have a realistic image of science and scientists,...     

“A moving target”: a critical race analysis of Latina/o faculty experiences,perspectives, and reflections on the tenure and promotion process

This article examines how Latina/o professors perceive, experience, and reflect on the tenure and promotion process. Findings for this longitudinal study are drawn from a purposive sample of nine female and seven male, Latina/o tenure-track faculty participants. Using a Critical Race Theory, Latino Critical (LatCrit) Race Theory, and Chicana Feminist framework, this article documents fundamental inequities in the tenure and promotion policies and practices that affected the Latina/o faculty in this study. Using narrative data, educational biographies, in-depth semi-structured interviews, and unstructured ethnographic interviews, this study found four common themes: (1) tenure and promotion processes functioned as a “tool of fear,” (2) the tenure and promotion process was like a “moving target,” (3) tenure provided limited forms of respect but not full membership, and (4) Latina/o supervivencia enabled the professors to thrive despite unsupportive and sometimes hostile campus and departmental climates.     

Foundations of Laic Moral Education in Spain

This article studies the foundations of laic moral education in Spain. Some aspects of laic moral education can also be found in other nations, including the emergence of the laic man or the need for an educating State; other aspects of laic moral education, however, are peculiar to the Spanish case, such as the influence of Krausoinstitutionism and the programmes of 1931 Republicanism. This analysis of laic moral education centres on the bipolarity of traditionalism/liberalism. The article takes 1857 as its starting point, a date that is significant for the birth of laic morality and the Spanish education system. The article’s end point is 1936, on the threshold of the Civil War. This bipolarity of traditional/liberal is in combination, on the one hand, with the demands of Krausoinstitutionism for an independent morality and neutrality in instruction as tools for the attainment of a moral ideal of preparing men and, on the other hand, the Republican vindication of an autonomous morality and school laicism as key to the preparation of citizens, as well as with the demand for a civil morality fostered by an educating State.     

¿Han sido seleccionados o se han acostumbrado? Ideas de estudiantes de biología sobre la selección natural y consistencia entre ellas

Resumen

Estudiantes universitarios de Biología, ante problemas de respuesta abierta sobre la selección natural, utilizan, en porcentajes alarmantes, interpretaciones que consideran la adaptación como cambios heredables en los individuos. Se encontró un cierto grado de consistencia entre las respuestas de cada sujeto a los problemas en diferentes contextos; pero hay también casos en que una persona empleó esquemas conceptuales diferentes. Se sugiere que una de las condiciones para promover el cambio conceptual es que los profesores tengan en cuenta las ideas de los estudiantes.     

Developmental changes (14–21 years old) in binge drinking patterns and their explanatory factors / Cambios evolutivos (14–21 años) en los patrones de ingesta puntual de alcohol en exceso y en sus factores explicativos

Abstract

In order to design prevention programs, it is important to understand the evolution of drinking behaviour patterns among adolescents and young people. The aim of this paper is to analyse the changes in these patterns based on age and their role in explaining this behaviour in the Theory of Planned Behaviour framework. We used 273 participants divided into three sub-samples (3^rd and 4^th ESO [Educación Secundaria Obligatoria, ‘Compulsory Secondary Education’] students and university students). For older ages, the frequency of binge drinking is higher and the attitudes were also more positive towards alcohol consumption. Structural equation analyses show that drinking behaviour is explained by a different model in each age-group: in older groups, the role played by positive attitude and perceived control is more important than in the younger; by contrast, the influence of reference groups decreases with age. Results show significant differences between age groups regarding the reasons that young people report for engaging or not engaging in this behaviour.     

Validating a model of effective teaching behaviour and student engagement: perspectives from Spanish students

Research consistently shows that teaching behaviour is a highly-important indicator of learning environments. Based on a teacher effectiveness model with six observable teaching behaviour domains (safe learning climate, efficient classroom management, clarity of instruction, activating teaching, teaching–learning strategies, and differentiation), the present paper examines the psychometric quality of the My Teacher questionnaire for capturing student perceptions of teaching behaviour in the Spanish secondary-education context. Additionally, this study validated the model of teaching behaviour and student engagement and its relevance in Spain. 7114 students of 410 teachers attending 56 public and private Spanish schools constituted the sample. The six teaching behavioural dimensions model were confirmed in the Spanish context. Regarding student academic engagement, the presence of two domains (behavioural and emotional engagement) were confirmed. Furthermore, results of a multiple-group structural equation modeling path analysis, examining the relationship between teaching behaviour and student engagement across different teaching experiences, revealed differential effects of teaching behaviour influences on students’ engagement. The percentage of explained variance was larger for emotional engagement than for behavioural engagement. Furthermore, teachers’ teaching experience explained differences in the relationship between perceived teaching behaviour and engagement. Two domains (learning climate and activating teaching) appeared to be the two most-important teaching domains for students’ behavioural engagement while, for emotional engagement, the most important domains for student engagement were learning climate and teaching learning strategies.

     

Measurement and analysis of soil nitrogen and organic matter content using near-infrared spectroscopy techniques

Near infrared reflectance （N1R） spectroscopy is as a rapid, convenient and simple nondestructive technique useful for quantifying several soil properties. This method was used to estimate nitrogen （N） and organic matter （OM） content in a soil of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou County. A total of 125 soil samples were taken from the field. Ninety-five samples spectra were used during the calibration and cross validation stage. Thirty samples spectra were used to predict N and OM concentration. NIR spectra of these samples were correlated using partial least square regression. The regression coefficients between measured and predicted values of N and OM was 0.92 and 0.93, and SEP （standard error of prediction） were 3.28 and 0.06, respectively, which showed that NIR method had potential to accurately predict these constituents in this soil. The results showed that NIR spectroscopy could be a good tool for precision farming application.